7 Interesting Facts About How Eyes Work and What Can Go Wrong

3 min


It’s almost time to hold the 2020 World Sight day in October. For those who don’t know, this is a yearly event to spread awareness about blindness prevention. This also highlights the milestones and achievements made on eradicating avoidable blindness.

This is a perfect opportunity to know more interesting details about the eyes. Know what problems cause them to not function and share them for future references. Alternatively, impress people with enough knowledge to rival an optometrist.

How much do you know about your eyes? Read this article to learn the lesser-known but amazing facts about how eyes work.

1. The Eye Has the Fastest Muscles in Your Body

Imagine you are walking outside your home and out of nowhere, someone throws something at you! Your eyes are the first thing to react to this sudden assault. How eyes work is largely in part to very quick muscles.

The brain won’t be able to process anything without the eyes giving information. It’s interesting to note that the eye can be quick to provide details but your mind can only take up so much at once. This is why you can only focus on one thing at a time due to omitted information.

2. Blinking Is Like Sleeping for a Tenth of a Second

A person blinks about 15-20 times every minute on a daily basis. That’s still more than 19,000 blinks a day even if you sleep for an average of 8 hours.

According to studies, blinking may serve as a break for your brain in your waking hours. Closing your eyes for a tenth of a second lowers brain activity. It’s a way to rest the brain from taking up so much information at the same time.

3. Your Eyes Can Have Different Eye Colors

Heterochromia, also known as Heterochromia Iridis, is a rare condition that makes your iris appear in different colors. There are only about 200,000 people from the US diagnosed with it.

This happens when melanin development slows down. Melanin is responsible for giving colors to the eyes or irises. A lack of melanin may lead to one eye having fully colored irises, while another eye to be less colored.

Luckily, people with heterochromia have reported suffering little to no vision problems. They could see things clearly as much as the next person.

4. It’s the Fastest Healing Organ of the Body

There are always instances where small objects get inside your eyes. Sand, dust, dirt, makeup, and even your nails are common aggravators.

All these hurt, but don’t worry, minor eye injuries can heal within a day or so. The surface of your eyes has living cells that can migrate fast to protect and cover the damaged parts of the eye.

5. Staring Straight Right into the Sun Can Burn Your Eyes

Looking at the sun is like pointing a magnifying glass on top of paper or dry leaves. The ultraviolet rays can flood your retina causing the tissues to burn.

And yes, your eyes can get sunburn like the rest of your body. This is a condition called photokeratitis, meaning swelling or burning on the front of the eye.

6. The Iris Is More Unique Than You Think

Have you ever checked them in the mirror closer than usual? You will notice that not only do both your irises have complex patterns but they are also unique! Your iris is a beautiful abyss of swirling colors that makes each eye unique.

It’s so complicated and distinctive that it would near-impossible to find one iris identical to yours. This is why international security and other private sectors use them for security. A retinal scan is just as good as a fingerprint scan in this instance.

7. The Highest Vision Score in History

Contrary to popular belief, 20/20 vision is normal and not that impressive in the grand scheme of things.

The record for the highest vision score recorded is 20/10 vision. With this eyesight, you can see things in high definition that are almost 20 feet away from you! Whereas 20/20 vision only lets you see objects 10 feet away from you.

What Can Go Wrong with Your Eyes?

People usually don’t appreciate having a good set of eyes. But taking care of your eyes is quite crucial for your health. Let’s talk about the several ways it can go wrong:

Presbyopia

As you grow older your eyesight will suffer along with a multitude of health problems.

Presbyopia is one of the eye disorders responsible for that phenomenon. It hardens the lens of your eyes and makes it lose some of its elasticity. This makes it harder for you to focus and get a clearer look at close images.

Stargardt Disease

This is a type of Macular Degeneration which affects eyesight and color perception. The proteins inside your eyes start blocking nutrients from getting through the macula. This is where millions of photoreceptors gather which allows the brain to perceive things.

Stargardt Disease is one of the leading causes of progressive blindness. They are no known treatments nor cures for this type of disease today.

Terrible Side Effects of Drugs or Medication

Did you know about the notorious Taxotere incident from Sanofi-Aventis? They did not disclose certain drug side-effects to the medical industry. Thousands of people are now suffering from permanent blindness because of their negligence.

If you are one of the individuals or you know someone who took Taxotere without consenting to the possible health consequences, go visit chemoeyelawsuit.com. You have every right to know about these things and get justice using the law.

How Eyes Work and Other Fun Facts

Here are the top 7 intriguing and thought-provoking facts about how eyes work. But even so, learn to be careful and take good care of your eye health. Anything could happen in a blink of an eye and you’ll want to be ready for them.

Did you like this type of content? Are you looking for more health and fitness guides to learn more about your body and how to take care of it? Feel free to read more of our guides right here to discover more!

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